This is Firefox like you've never seen it before

There haven't been very many "Wow!" moments since Mozilla switched to a rapid release schedule for its Firefox browser that includes frequent updates with mostly minor upgrades. Not this time. Mozilla today rolled out Firefox 29, and with it is a brand new look and feel. Mozilla wanted to give Firefox an "elegant" design while simultaneously overhauling the layout so that it would be the most customizable version yet.

Mozilla co-founder was pressured to resign due to his support of an anti-gay marriage law

After barely more than a week on the job, Brendan Eich has made the decision to resign as Chief Executive Officer of Mozilla, and is giving up his seat on the board as well. Eich was named CEO on March 24, 2014, which immediately drew the ire of several employees and members of the LGBT community over his support of California's anti-gay marriage law, otherwise famously known as Proposition 8.

New clutter-free interface comes three years after last major design change

Mozilla on Thursday released a new beta build of its flagship product. Not only does the Firefox 29 beta with its minimalist ‘Australis’ interface bear a striking resemblance to Chrome, it also packs a much-improved Chrome-like approach to browser syncing.

The long-delayed browser had been under development since 2012

Mozilla has brought down the curtain on Firefox for Windows 8 Touch, Johnathan Nightingale, Vice President of Firefox, announced Friday. The decision is particularly surprising as the first stable build of the touch-friendly browser, which had been under development since 2012, was due out soon.

Notice to new Firefox users: You've been served (ads)

Mozilla has decided that the best course of action going forward is to fill all those blank squares in new tabs with sponsored content (ads, for the layman). The new initiative is called Directory Tiles and it's intended to "improve the first-time-with-Firefox experience," or at least that's the sales pitch from Darren Herman, Mozilla's Vice President of Content Services. It's his job to diversify revenue and sustain Mozilla's mission through innovation in content and personalization products, and this is one way he plans to do that.

A touch-friendly browser for Windows 8/8.1 users

Attention Surface owners and anyone else rocking a touchscreen display with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, there's a version of Firefox you might be interested in. Mozilla today made its "Firefox for Windows 8 Touch" beta available to download, so you can tap and swipe your way through cyberspace the way you do on the Start screen. The browser has a new tile-based Firefox start screen with one-tap access to Top Sites, Bookmarks, and History.

The industry needs a better way to survey software

Now that January is in the rear view mirror, we're presented with our first opportunity to see which browsers are off to a promising start in 2014 and which ones are destined to be also-rans. The problem with attempting to do so is the lack of reliable data. To show you what we mean, let's first look at data from NetApplications, which has Internet Explorer in a dominant position with a 58.21 percent share of the browser market. Looking at the numbers, IE is pretty much untouchable.

See who's tracking your online browsing with this new add-on

Online privacy is already tough to nail down, and everywhere you go on the internet retains little traces of your presence. You're still easily traceable, even if you take more precautions than the average user takes. Lightbeam (via PC World), is an interesting new add-on from Mozilla, is an informative new tool that shows us exactly which sites are tracking or otherwise gleaning data from you.

AVG has a new leader

AVG Technologies was in need of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Gary Kovacs, the former chief of Mozilla, needed a job after having stepped down from his previous role several months ago. Like a cheesy corporate love story, the two have found each other and will ride off into the sunset hand-in-hand, or something like that. Hollywood shenanigans aside, Kovacs will bring his more than two decades of Mozilla experience to one of the more popular free security vendors on the market.